Yule Blog
Well, another Christmas, here tomorrow and gone the next day. Always a somewhat intense, heightened time(too bad it doesn't apply vertically- oh well.)The holidays seem to intensify whatever's going on with you, good or bad. A time of great joy and/or a time of great sorrow.
My favorite Christmases, as is probably the case for most of us, were those spent as a little kid. When it was all magic. The later ones had their entertainment value, but that was more just the family's various eccentricities than the "magic" of the season. Much like the State Fair(and for that matter, Trix cereal), Christmas is for the youngsters. After awhile, you catch on that Santa Claus is actually just your folks adding more to their credit card--and the games at the Fair are rigged, or just plain jive...
As far as it being a "heightened" time of year, I must say, if life is pretty good, it's even better at Christmastime. In that regard, I do remember a couple such Christmases: one in which I'd just started seeing one particular girl, another--actually a couple-- when I'd just gotten married, and a couple where I came home from school and "got lucky"(at least once this followed a fairly long 'dry spell', making it all the more meaningful). Great when that stuff happens on or around Christmastime, as it makes the whole thing even better: romance, or just 'getting lucky'..
On the other side of the coin, if life throws you a belly-smacker, it's all the worse at Christmastime. Lots of people get laid off from their jobs around this time, whether temporarily or indefinitely. Right at what's often the most expensive time of year for one.
And for another-actually the main thing here-it's supposed to be a time of great joy(at least according to the media). So when your life ain't exactly joyous, due to losing your job or whatever, it makes it all the more difficult to "rejoice". What the hell are you rejoicing, anyway?!It exacerbates your already bad situation, just seems to pour salt on the wound, since "everyone else" is out there having a great time.
Christmas music, I've found, is especially irritating if you're having a bad day. (Especially those fucking Chipmunks , but anything similarly "packaged".)I remember the day after our nastyass Winter Storm of November 30th, no power in the house and no idea when it would be restored plus a vehicle with a failing front tire, hearing Simon, Theodore and AL-VIN! on the radio and being particularly sickened. "Why don't you pull the plug on them", I thought. Little hairy fucking vermin...
Now Christmas songs are another matter. But, again the less packaged and more in their "pristine" form the better. Hark the Herald Angels Sing? God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen? Forget about it! Great stuff! One of these years I wanna do a Christmas CD, with such traditional material as the two mentioned, but that's another blog.
I do like Christmas as a season though. My Dad used to say, "well hell you do nice things for people all year long, so why make a big deal here?" This was partly just his unwillingness to bother with it(when it came time to exchange gifts, he usually just handed you the bag with your present in it), but partly that it's really how people should behave--all year long. In a spirit of giving.
Peace on Earth. Good will towards men. Sure would be nice...
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Well I guess I have a post-script here, since I was talking about my Christmases and how their entertainment value changed as I got older, favoring more the family's eccentricities. Every family has, in its network of relationships, some degree of ambivalence in there: love and contempt, or at least love and resentment. My Dad had this with his Mom, and thus dreaded the holiday get-togethers--so much so that he'd come down with a nasty head cold every year at the same time. While we wouldn't wish him to be in any kind of pain, we still had to chuckle at the annual psychosomatic cold and all his sneezing and coughing.
Strangely enough, when he passed away in 1992, I was the one with the nasty cold. For what that's worth.
Anyway. Merry Christmas..
My favorite Christmases, as is probably the case for most of us, were those spent as a little kid. When it was all magic. The later ones had their entertainment value, but that was more just the family's various eccentricities than the "magic" of the season. Much like the State Fair(and for that matter, Trix cereal), Christmas is for the youngsters. After awhile, you catch on that Santa Claus is actually just your folks adding more to their credit card--and the games at the Fair are rigged, or just plain jive...
As far as it being a "heightened" time of year, I must say, if life is pretty good, it's even better at Christmastime. In that regard, I do remember a couple such Christmases: one in which I'd just started seeing one particular girl, another--actually a couple-- when I'd just gotten married, and a couple where I came home from school and "got lucky"(at least once this followed a fairly long 'dry spell', making it all the more meaningful). Great when that stuff happens on or around Christmastime, as it makes the whole thing even better: romance, or just 'getting lucky'..
On the other side of the coin, if life throws you a belly-smacker, it's all the worse at Christmastime. Lots of people get laid off from their jobs around this time, whether temporarily or indefinitely. Right at what's often the most expensive time of year for one.
And for another-actually the main thing here-it's supposed to be a time of great joy(at least according to the media). So when your life ain't exactly joyous, due to losing your job or whatever, it makes it all the more difficult to "rejoice". What the hell are you rejoicing, anyway?!It exacerbates your already bad situation, just seems to pour salt on the wound, since "everyone else" is out there having a great time.
Christmas music, I've found, is especially irritating if you're having a bad day. (Especially those fucking Chipmunks , but anything similarly "packaged".)I remember the day after our nastyass Winter Storm of November 30th, no power in the house and no idea when it would be restored plus a vehicle with a failing front tire, hearing Simon, Theodore and AL-VIN! on the radio and being particularly sickened. "Why don't you pull the plug on them", I thought. Little hairy fucking vermin...
Now Christmas songs are another matter. But, again the less packaged and more in their "pristine" form the better. Hark the Herald Angels Sing? God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen? Forget about it! Great stuff! One of these years I wanna do a Christmas CD, with such traditional material as the two mentioned, but that's another blog.
I do like Christmas as a season though. My Dad used to say, "well hell you do nice things for people all year long, so why make a big deal here?" This was partly just his unwillingness to bother with it(when it came time to exchange gifts, he usually just handed you the bag with your present in it), but partly that it's really how people should behave--all year long. In a spirit of giving.
Peace on Earth. Good will towards men. Sure would be nice...
***********************************************************************
Well I guess I have a post-script here, since I was talking about my Christmases and how their entertainment value changed as I got older, favoring more the family's eccentricities. Every family has, in its network of relationships, some degree of ambivalence in there: love and contempt, or at least love and resentment. My Dad had this with his Mom, and thus dreaded the holiday get-togethers--so much so that he'd come down with a nasty head cold every year at the same time. While we wouldn't wish him to be in any kind of pain, we still had to chuckle at the annual psychosomatic cold and all his sneezing and coughing.
Strangely enough, when he passed away in 1992, I was the one with the nasty cold. For what that's worth.
Anyway. Merry Christmas..
posted by Roger U Roundly at 5:01 PM
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